Documentation of civil society organizations

According to available findings, material created during the nineties by of work of CSOs in Croatia, has not been settled or deposited and there is a danger that it will not be preserved. Awareness of the importance of this material is still not sufficiently developed, both within CSOs and beyond.

Through several projects, Documenta has begun a long-term process that should allow for complete records-created work of civil society to be permanently preserved as an integral part of social and historical heritage, available to future generations of students, researchers, public and all interested parties. Keeping this segment of the social and historical heritage isan integral process of democratization of Croatian society and one of the basis for the study of recent Croatian history.

Documenta recognizes the importance of documenting the most invisible part, but not less important activist work of CSOs. Documenta has subsequently published two manuals, organized a series of practical courses and roundtables on archiving to encourage civil society to understand the significance of the process of systematically classifying, cataloguing and archiving material, with the aim of establishing a documentation center that would consolidate the archives of organizations for the protection of human rights.

Documenta's archive as one of its holdings is in a possession of Antiwar Campaign Croatia (Antiratna kampanja Hrvatske, ARK/AWCC) archive, which contains documentation from the period 1990 -2006. Documentation is not in organized state, and one of the most important aim of Documenta's archive is organization and digitization of the material. In the year 2011, 20 years was passing from the founding of AWCC. Documenta, together with activists of this network was engaged in the process of marking this anniversary. We organized two circles of conversation with actors of AWCC and a round table. We also searched through the whole documentation contained in AWCC archive in Documenta, as well as archives held by other private holders of respective documentation. As a result of this project, a book Antiwar campaign 1990 – 2011. Untold history was published. Also as a part of marking 20th anniversary, in March 1-2 a regional conference “Legacy of Peace Initiatives” was organized in Zagreb.

Development of state institutions

In cooperation with doc.dr.sc. Živana Heđbeli, Documenta published the book of same author State administration institutions of Republic of Croatia from independence until the joining the European Union. Part 1 (1990-2004), which represent the beginning of a research project on the development of state institution of Republic of Croatia.